Book 8: Meleager and the Calydonian Boar Notes from Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses Book 8: Meleager and the Calydonian Boar

Daedalus went to Athens and rested in the city that Theseus had saved. Theseus was so heroic that Meleager had asked for his help to get rid of the boar that was terrorizing Calydon. Diana had sent the great boar as a plague to the city, and it was destroying the crops. So Meleager called together a great assembly of heroes, among them a woman named Atalanta. Meleager was impressed by her looks, but he focused on the task at hand. Many of the great warriors fell to the boar, and Atalanta gave the boar his first wound. Meleager, after many tries, finished the animal off. He shared the spoils of the defeat with Atalanta, and two brothers jealously took away the prize he'd given Atalanta. Meleager's wrath overcame him and he killed them both.